JOURNALS
Charles Christensen was born on 18 August 1887 in Kanosh,
Utah. He was a cowboy’s cowboy, a war
hero and my grandfather. When Charles
was 18 years old he and a friend rode on saddle horses to Ely, Nevada to work
on ranches by day and restaurants by night.
After a few years he returned to Kanosh.
He and 3 other partners then purchased 5,000 head of cattle and shipped
them by rail to Green River Utah. At
that time, open range unregulated by permits was available on government
land. Being the only single one in the
group, Charles rode his horse to Green River and stayed with the cattle while
the others came to help when round-ups or branding were to be done.
One day his life changed forever. Charles rode to Castle Dale, Utah to get his
mail. He opened a letter notifying him
he had been drafted into the Army. He
enlisted in the Army on 25 June 1918 in Castle Dale, was sent to Camp Lewis in
Tacoma, Washington for boot training then sent to New York City where he was
put in the 77th Division, 308th Battalion with the New
York boys and shipped to France. His outfit marched through France until they
joined the US Division Headquarters. On
2 Oct 1918 they were ordered into the Argonne Forest to fight the Germans.
His unit became surrounded by German troops and was short on
food, water and ammunition. Deadly gas
filled the air, bullets flew, bombs exploded and the dead and wounded were
lying everywhere. But, they ignored
messages from the enemy to surrender.
They spent five days and nights of desperate action and held their ground
until US troops were able to relieve them.
Over 500 men went into the Argonne Forest, less than 200 men came out
alive. Charles was one of them. They are
referred to still as The Lost Battalion. On 23 Oct 1918, Charles wrote a postcard to
Freda George in Kanosh saying he had just come out of the front lines. The Great War ended 5 weeks later on 11 Nov
1918. He spent some time in the hospital
and touring France. On 26 April 1919
Charles sent a postcard to Freda telling her he was on a ship sailing home.
After he returned home, Charles rode his horse again to
Green River with the 3 cattle owners to see what they could salvage from their
cattle project. They returned to Kanosh
with just their horses and saddles. The
cattle project was a complete loss. Charles
married Freda on 17 Oct 1921. They
raised five children, one of which was my mother.
Charles had been exposed to chlorine gas while in France and
had also picked up a dysentery condition that he never quite got over. It settled in his liver and he passed away on
23 Jan 1944. He was 56 years old. He was a small man, 5 feet 6 inches tall and
he weighed about 130 pounds. He was a hard worker, had a great sense of humor
and was loved by everyone.
This short history came from my mother’s memories and
written documents. It is a man’s life;
condensed down to a few written lines.
It is sobering to think what will be written about you or me from peoples’
memories and our journals. Someone will
someday write a summary of your life. Maybe you will write it yourself. It will become your legacy and in the absence
of facts and your own declarations it can be a shallow travel log based on
perceptions and cloudy memories.
There are good, better and best ways to keep a journal. We learn some valuable insights about this from
Nephi. He was writing a journal that
became scripture, but his method and purpose of writing explains the best way
to write what will ultimately become your recorded legacy and history.
23 For we labor diligently to
write, to persuade our
children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to
God… (2Nephi 25:23)
15 … I write the
things of my soul…and my heart pondereth
them, and writeth them for the learning and
the profit of my children.
From this, we understand that Nephi wrote his history with
notations and experiences for the express purpose of persuading his children
and brethren to believe in Christ. His wanted
his children to learn and profit from his words, so he wrote things of his soul
and of the Lord. This is a guide to you
of what to write in your journal. The
day-to-day activities are not as important as your testimony that brings your
children to Christ. This method of
journal writing is bluntly summed up by Nephi with:
3 And it mattereth not to me
that I am particular to give a full account of all the things of my father, for
they cannot be written upon these plates,
for I desire the room that I may write of the things of God.
4 For the
fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men
to come unto
the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved.
5 Wherefore,
the things which are pleasing unto
the world I do not write, but the things which are pleasing unto God and unto
those who are not of the world.
6 Wherefore,
I shall give commandment unto my seed, that they shall not occupy these plates
with things which are not of worth unto the children of men.
(1Nephi 6:3-6)
The travel log feature of the story of Charles Christensen
are good. It is interesting and the
reader comes to know the man from his history.
The story would have been better if he had included description of his:
attitude, spiritual experiences, insights, love for others, commitments, etc. that
would inspire and lift the lives of his descendents. The story would have been best if his journal
had also included short declarations of testimony that persuades men to believe
in Christ and be saved. Your most
important converts during your life might just be your own children and family. Your influence can last for centuries after
you are gone if you follow Nephi’s philosophy of journal writing.
President Robinson
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